


three pixels

by deathlytireddan



Series: tumblr prompts [19]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Family, France - Freeform, M/M, Skype, Tiny Bit of Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 03:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20668292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathlytireddan/pseuds/deathlytireddan
Summary: 42. “Stop being so cute.”





	three pixels

**Author's Note:**

> This completely went off the rails of just a little thing about one of them being cute, but I hope you like it!

It takes a long time for them to connect.

Rural France mixed with the usual bad WiFi at home means Phil is just three pixels and a crackling voice. First his hand raises, a bit at a time, and then he's stuck with a disturbing half smile for a while. 

Dan smothers a laugh into a pillow until it loads, finally. "You look like a demon," he says, but he thinks the connection must be bad on his end too because Phil doesn't reply.

"Hi," Phil says, toothy smile finally appearing. He has a little bit of sauce around his mouth still. Dan wonders what he'd been eating for dinner. It's strange not knowing. This is the longest they've been apart for a very long time. It's starting to gnaw on Dan.

"Hi," Dan says, resting his chin on his hand. "Okay?"

Phil nods. "Is everyone out?"

"Can't wait to get into my pants?" Dan wriggles his eyebrows. 

"No, shut up." It freezes just as Phil goes to roll his eyes and Dan takes a quick screenshot, trying to be sneaky. "Just wondered why you aren't out, since you have been the last few nights." He loads again, a nice smile on his whole face.

Dan shrugs. "Just tired." And wanting to just talk to Phil, without any family in the house. It feels too much like sneaking around as a teenager. 

"Yeah?"

"Mmm. It's just me and this good boy." Dan pats the mattress next to him and Colin jumps up, giving him a big kiss across the face. 

Phil looks like he might cry. "I'm so jealous right now."

Dan rubs Colin's impossible soft ears between his fingers as Colin settles on his knee and looks up with those big dark eyes. "Oh, you should be. Yes, everyone should be jealous of this good boy." Colin yawns. "Oh, yes, you're the best boy!"

"Stop being so cute," Phil complains. Dan doesn't know which of them he's talking about, but he does see Phil go for a sneaky screenshot of his own, it looks like. 

Colin rolls off of Dan's knee and settles at the end of the bed. Dan stretches out his toes are under the warm, cuddly fur and sets the laptop on his thighs. 

Nostalgia blooms in his chest. Phil is rambling on about a show he's watching with his mum and how pretty the island is, Bryony's plot of land, what he ate for dinner.

Dan just listens with half - closed eyes, nodding along at the right moments. Phil used to ramble on for ages while Dan caught up on sleep, back when they were together but not _together_. Phil didn't mention it much then, and he doesn't now.

"But we should be talking about your vacation," Phil says, claps his hands together. Dan opens his eyes reluctantly. 

"I guess so." 

It isn't so much a holiday as it is more than a decades worth of family bonding and the sharing of feelings, packed into two weeks and the French countryside. 

He yawns again. Colin snuffles along the bed, sniffing where Dan had spilled cookie crumbs earlier. 

"Colin is my Phil right now," he says, just to see that look Phil gets sometimes. 

"Yeah?" He asks softly. 

"Doesn't snore though. Or steal the blankets. Maybe I'll replace you permanently."

Phil looks unimpressed by this suggestion. "Sure you will." 

They lapse into silence. Dan thinks about everything he could share. Drinking fancy wine into the night with his mum and...talking. Just talking. Going on a run with Adrian. Talking to his nana about Phil and blushing behind an ice cream when she teases gently. 

Dan frowns down at his nails. They're getting long but he'd forgotten to bring the little bag he keeps his nail things in. Maybe he can pick something up when everyone else is busy. 

No, he can just ask to borrow his mum's. That's fine now. It's allowed. 

"What's that frown for?" Phil breaks the silence gently. 

Dan watches Colin. He's gone back into doggy dreamland. "I don't know. It's just - weird, isn't it? Me here and you there, but everyone knows you're there waiting for me."  
"Technically I'm not home."

"You know what I mean. And you will be, anyway."

Phil hums. "It's not a secret." He shifts. There's the gentle sound of rain in the background, starting to splatter against the windows behind him. "But it feels like it should be?" 

Probably. It's all a little more complicated than that, in so many ways Dan won't even begin to be able to name until he's back home and slept a few times, gone to therapy and talked it all over, and slept some more.

Possibly he'll never fully understand his family and how he feels about them. Having that unsolved mystery used to frustrate him, but now he's starting to think it's okay. Not everything has to be understood. 

Dan thinks about trying to tell Phil all of this, but keeps his mouth closed. He'll think about it for a while longer.

He focuses back on Phil. He's got his eyes on Dan, warm, comforting, waiting patiently. 

"I'll talk to you more at home. About it all."

Phil nods. He understands. That's all that needs to be said, really. He understands.

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr: mylionbabe


End file.
